May 05, 2004

Back to the table of Contents Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

Cardinal back as nation's No. 1

by Rick Eymer

What you won't see from the Stanford baseball team after learning it regained the No. 1 ranking from Baseball America on Monday afternoon: a lot of chest-pounding and fingers thrust in the air proclaiming how great and powerful they are. At least you won't see that in public.

What you will see: Cardinal players going about their business with a calm confidence, and enthusiasm for the game. After all, Stanford has been ranked No. 1 before. This team knows it doesn't mean a thing until the final out on June 28.

Stanford remained in first place in the Pac-10 following a three-game sweep of visiting Washington State in which the Cardinal outscored the Cougars, 38-17.

Stanford completed the sweep with a 17-3 victory on Sunday which included a season-high eight home runs. The Cardinal (10-2, 35-6) won, 13-11, on Saturday and opened with an 8-3 victory on Friday.

Stanford travels to Washington for an important conference series this weekend beginning with Friday' 6:30 p.m. contest. The Huskies (10-5, 26-14) currently occupy second place in the Pac-10, 11/2 games behind the Cardinal.

"This team deserves a lot of credit at this point in the season," said Stanford coach Mark Marquess. "They have played well."

OK. Well, there's that No. 1 ranking, a staff ERA of 3.98 and an offense that must make college coaches around the country slobber at their mention.

Sophomore first baseman John Mayberry is hitting .348 with 11 home runs and 45 RBI and the former first-round draft pick is just another run producer amidst Stanford's potent offense.

Brian Hall flexed his muscles over the weekend, producing a pair of four-hit games to go with a two-hit affair. He drove in eight runs, including one of those homers on Sunday.

All Hall has done is hit safely in 25 of his last 26 contests, raising his batting average to .399, and his Pac-10 mark to .638 (30-47).

Hall was 10-for-11 (.909) with three sacrifice flies, a double, two homers, eight RBI, one walk, six runs scored and a 1.545 slugging percentage in Stanford's three-game sweep of the Cougars. For that, Hall was named has been named Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week.

All of which produced one of the better understatements of the year from Marquess: "Brian Hall has been having a great year all season for us and has been really hot of late."

Yet even Hall has to share the spotlight. Jed Lowrie is hitting .400 with a team-high 14 homers and 54 RBI. Danny Putnam is batting .378 with 12 homers and 42 RBI. Jonny Ash is at .374 and Donny Lucy has a .365 batting average with 10 homers and 37 RBI.

"Our approach the whole time is to put the pressure on all game and score as many runs as we can each inning and not sit on a lead because you never know what's going to happen," said Putnam, who recorded his fifth career multi-homer game.

If that weren't enough, let's roll out the Chris Crew. Chris Carter had three hits and drove in four runs in one game, and drove in three more in another. Chris Minaker hit a grand slam on Saturday, and Chris Lewis hit a home run on Sunday.

The eight homers gives Stanford 71 on the season. The school record is 102 hit by the 1997 team.

Greg Reynolds, who went to high school in nearby Pacifica, earned the victory on Sunday in his first Pac-10 start, allowing just three runs on three hits and three walks with three strikeouts over five innings. Reynolds (3-0) retired the first 11 batters he faced before allowing an infield single with two outs in the top of the fourth.

"I felt really comfortable, especially in the first four innings," said Reynolds. "Everything we were trying to do in our game plan was working."

Blake Holler struck out three and allowed just one hit in two innings of relief, and retired the final five batters he faced to close out the contest. Holler has a streak of seven consecutive scoreless innings covering his last three appearances.

Stanford is off to its second best start in school history after 41 games to the 35-5-1 mark posted by the 1967 club, which featured a young first baseman by the name of Mark Marquess, who led the team in hits (53) and average (.404) that year.

Stanford needs to win its next two games to post the best record ever by a Cardinal team through 43 contests as the 1967 team finished 36-6-1.

Stanford extended its home win streak to 13, and has beaten the Cougars 20 straight times dating to 1978.

Sam Fuld snapped an 0-for-20 stretch with a pair of hits to move within 33 hits of all-time Stanford and Pac-10 record holder John Gall (368, 1997-2000).

Fuld is already Stanford's all-time leader with 254 runs scored.

Jeff Gilmore (7-2) won Saturday, allowing five runs (four earned) on nine hits and one walk with four strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

Minaker was 1-of-17 before hitting his grand slam.

Mark Romanczuk (9-1) leads the Pac-10 in victories after winning on Friday. He allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks with three strikeouts over seven innings. Romanczuk improved to 21-3 in his Stanford career with the victory and ranks fourth on Stanford's all-time won-loss percentage list with an .875 mark.

"I've played at an opportune time here at Stanford with our potent offense," explained Romanczuk. "It's nice to pitch in front of this type of offense."

E-mail a friend a link to this story.